There is a small catch.  Once this new domain is launched, they say in 2010, not just anyone will be able to register for it.  In other words, there will be a set of eligibility standards applicants would have to meet.  One idea is having applicants set up a profile outlining their sustainability initiatives.  But this leaves the question, who will verify this?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Both companies have strong supporters.

Smaller businesses are able to address environmental issues that bigger companies and mega corporations simply cannot. Big box stores and agribusinesses not only have operating requirements that cannot be altered, they have a drive of increasing quotes.

The issues are transportation, distribution, shelf life, and surplus inventory. The depth of these issues change with the size of a business.

Much of the product placed on a container ship is not a necessity. So much is made in high volume with the aim to market it to you. Not all containers on a ship make it to their destination; many fall off the ship in stormy seas and break open to spill the contents. We cannot ignore the stories of new products rolling in on waves to rest on pristine beaches. Or, all the plastic remains of garbage gathering in the Pacific Ocean (the size of Texas x 2) ; a patch filled with “stuff” we used for a moment.

Second, distribution centers are large facilities with miles of shelving. The amount of energy used to cool or heat these buildings is immense. On the shelves products sit. Many products, like food and personal care items, need chemical preservatives while they sit waiting to get to you. Once shipped to a retail center the products sit again. Next time you hold a product in your hand try to guess how long it took to journey to you. Imagine the route and you will start to realize that the journey can take not only weeks but perhaps months.

Once stuff has been bought – mass produced products marketed to you – there are always product remaining. What about the all the time and energy spent to make a T-shirt that doesn’t sell? So often it ends up as a rag or shipped again to yet another country. There is something very wrong here when it comes to resources and energy use.

If you are part of the green movement SIZE DOES MATTER. The truly green consumer admires small, family run, single owner, micro businesses! Hand-made, locally made, organically grown, direct to consumer, is lower impact and earth-friendly. Supporting smaller establishments, precious products made with purpose and a human touch, is a leading force in defining our sustainable earth-friendly future.

How it all started

Make Hay was founded in September 2004. Well, that’s when all the official bits happened. But before it even had a name Make Hay had been whirring around in our brains for a long time. Disillusioned by traditional business models and encouraged by the potential of business driven by purpose, not just profit, we decided it was time to take our combined positive experiences and skills and make our contribution to changing the world. I know that might sound a bit cliché but that was, and still is, the driving force behind our business.

Back in 2004 the business world was a different place. As we excitedly told friends and family what we were planning to do we were often met with bemused looks or remarks like “that’s crazy, you’ll never make any money”. Concerned supporters suggested “why don’t you start off without an ethical policy and when you’re established then go down the ethical route?” – There was no question of that. We did have positive encouragement too and to those people we are massively grateful. Without it the beginnings of our fledgling business would have been difficult and isolating.

Connecting with others

It wasn’t long before we found a few other businesses that we could look to for collaborations and support. I remember very well one of the first businesses we discovered was Ethical Junction. In great anticipation of meeting more greeny business types we added our details to what was then a humble directory ran by a handful of folks. Now, I’m happy to say, Ethical Junction are a mighty force connecting responsible business owners all over the UK and we’re very proud to still be members.

Make Hay Highlights

Personal highlights in our Make Hay journey include setting up Make Noise, to help promote the work of our amazing web design clients and adding the Green Hosting arm to our business, which enabled us to provide websites powered on renewable energy. We also co-founded and became host to the Green Girls Global blog and later Green Guys Global and joined the steering group of a local Fairtrade campaign as business representative. More recently we launched our Make Mail service, providing clients with e-mail marketing newsletters so that they could reach out even further and our blog, another useful voice in sharing the work of our clients and news and views on responsible and sustainable business.

Green Seeping into the Mainstream

More widely we’ve noted some vast changes in the business world as you will have too. Nowadays we’re spoiled for choice when it comes to green stationery, equipment and furniture. We can have our offices powered by the wind and become listed in a wealth of useful directories and networks working hard to get green to the masses. Gone are the days when shop keepers look at you aghast for bringing your own bag and even the big supermarkets are hiding their plastic carriers under the till.

Let’s not be fooled or get complacent, there is a still a long, long way to go and it won’t be easy. But we can be buoyed by the way that green business has begun to seep into the mainstream, even in Make Hay’s short lifetime, and use that to drive us forward. Let’s see what we can achieve in the next 5, 15, 50 years!

Why?

Because everyone knows that while you may well call a spade a spade you can’t always call a 12 a 12 or a 14 a 14. And if the coveted garment didn’t fit, I’d have to package it all up again, find a time to get down to the post office and start over. Sometimes I’d even end up out of pocket for returns.

It’s not just the sizing either; I want to touch the fabrics I’m about to buy, feel them against my skin – what does 80% cotton / 20% lycra actually feel like?

But my green conversion about 5 years or so ago plucked me from the high street – charity shops a notable exception and where I spend most of my clothes allowance – and planted me in front of my computer.

The eco fabrics and fair trade fashions I was hearing so much about were nowhere to be found in downtown sunny Worthing. Only online had the answers.

Sadly, while payment was quick and easy with a careless click here and there, I soon discovered the concerns of my catalogue-shy days had not disappeared.

Eagerly opening packages with a 5-year-old’s greedy glee, my face would fall. Oh. I didn’t think it would look like that, feel like that. I thought it was going to be longer, shorter, tighter, looser.

Just this month, the bamboo maternity jeans which I had imagined soft and silky smooth caressing my (average-sized?) thighs and ballooning belly and which I had ordered a size larger than usual as recommended by the website (although why a company would want to label their clothes a size smaller than the average in these body conscious days is beyond me) turned out to be smaller and tighter than my smallest, tightest pair of pre-pregnancy size 12s.

I could barely squeeze into them and heaven help the poor expanding bump – that elasticated waistband was not forgiving.

My other purchase – the slinky black bamboo / spandex mix trousers – did fit, but did trail a good 30cm of slinky bamboo / spandex fabric on the floor.

So now I have to sort out returning the jeans and start turning up the trousers (trying not to damage that lovely stretchy material with my inept sewing skills).

Eco stationery angst

Eco stationery is another regular gripe of mine (as my husband will attest). I look online but I want to know what it feels like, how tough it is, how big it is really (for my dimensionally-challenged brain).

And you know what? I need it now. To finish this report, file this document – can’t I just pop down to the shops?

Please green my high street

What I’m building up to here (yes, this rant does have a point) is that we need more of a green presence on the high street – and where there is one, we need to know about it.

Something along the lines of the Delocator website for independent cafes but for shops – whether small independents or household names such as WHSmiths – to know before you head down there what recycled stationery your local branch holds, for example.

Eco clothing retailers who only have an online presence could build relationships with shops on the high street (a chain of charity shops perhaps). Your order would go to the shop, you could try it on there (having ordered 2 or 3 sizes to be sure) and if it doesn’t fit, the shop can sell it on or return it – with suitable commissions agreed between the online retailer and host shop.

A bonus of this would be to push the green shopper back on to our beleaguered high street which – as the recent Mary Portas ‘Save our Shops’ programme showed – is desperately in need of our support.

Our high street needs you!

If you know of any schemes or websites that are doing this already or are in the start-up stages, do let us know, we’d love to hear about them.

Let’s get green on the high street!

Katie

Apparently GMTV run an annual high street fashion award recognising different types of fashion labels and giving the viewing public a chance to vote for the winner. The particular feature I happened to catch was ‘best budget fashion’ category which included Primark and George at ASDA as nominees as well as a few other well known names. This was enough to stop me in my tracks, I couldn’t believe this TV show was actually going to reward fashion labels which have been linked to such negative reports about sweatshops and manufacturing practices. I was even more horrified to hear the TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, pop star Rachel Stevens and Paula Reed (style director of celebrity gossip and trashy fashion magazine Grazia) sing the praises of these cheap shops. Lorraine Kelly even said something to the effect of “It’s great that you can pop into the supermarket and buy a toilet duck and a dress for just a few pounds” (this isn’t exactly what she said but very similar). What?!!!

Just to clarify, I don’t have anything against bargains per se. I love them just as much as any girl who likes to shop but there are a few things here that really make my blood boil:

1) Anyone who knows anything about fashion and clothes shopping must have come across the high profile, negative press on such budget shops as Primark. Additionally there are many reports about the dangers of conventional cotton farming for lower and lower prices (if you’re wondering what I’m talking about see the references at the end of this article). I would be very surprised to find that the researchers at GMTV, Lorraine, Rachel and Paula are unaware of these things, yet not only do they ignore the issues but they actively promote these shops anyway.

2) How opportunistic and irresponsible, in a time of economic instability and money worries, to tell a mass audience that this is the way to enjoy fashion cheaply; Not to mention patronising coming from a group of women who earn salaries most of us could only dream of. If they wanted to promote fashion that doesn’t cost a lot of money why not talk about charity shops, vintage shops, customising clothes and even the high street shops with more positive ethical credentials? Traditional values of designer fashion were to create beautiful, well made and stylish garments that would last for years, not some throw-away item to be bought for one night out.

3) Where was the ‘most ethical fashion label’ category? Why don’t GMTV and these celebrities use their far reaching voice to tell consumers about the fashion labels working hard to use green practices and create a safe and fair environment for workers?

I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All fired up I decided to write to GMTV and Rachel Stevens to let them know my disappointment, ask them if they were aware of the issues around such cheap, throw away fashion and ask them for any comments that I could share on Green Girls Global. About two weeks later I received an e-mail from GMTV saying that my message had been passed to Lorraine and her team. I’ve heard nothing since and nothing at all from Rachel Stevens.

There’s no doubt that celebrity endorsement can help a product. When Madonna announced that she loved Timothy Taylor’s Landlord beer (and so do I) the brewery were delighted, knowing the new markets it could open and exposure it would bring.

I guess what I’m wondering is am I justified to be so annoyed by celebrities endorsing infamous products and companies (I also despair at Davina McCall’s Loreal campaign)? Of course anyone has the right to promote whatever they want and with the wonderful world of the internet anyone can. But if a popular personality says a product is great I can guarantee that would have a lot more clout than if I did.

Should those with a louder voice be using it more responsibly? Should those with more opportunities help those with less?

In stark contrast to the above is Vivienne Westwood who appeared on Jonathan Ross’ talk show last week. She had specifically requested to visit the show to talk about climate change because she knew it was the way to reach a lot of people. She tapped into the mainstream media to spread an impirtant message. It’s best said directly from Vivienne so do take a few minutes to watch the videos below. All I can say is “good on ya Vivienne” I wish there were more celebs as smart as you!

References

GreenMyStyle
Expect Primark protests this Saturday over 7p worker rates (30/04/2009)

Katharine Hamnett
Why Conventional Cotton is Such a Killer

The Independent
The real price of cheap clothes: Bangladeshi sweatshop labourers paid just 3p an hour

People Tree
Pesticide suicides. The cotton farmers’ tragedy

No Sweat
ASDA, the £4 School Uniform and the Sun Sings the Praise of Sweatshops

International Labour Rights Forum
UK supermarkets’ ethical clothing standards ‘a sham’

BBC
Primark Linked to UK Sweatshops

The Green Group at the Nottingham Council for Voluntary Service (in the Voluntary Action Centre) formed to help NCVS plan and implement ways to green up their workplace. After discovering that 20% of their energy consumption happened overnight the horrified group members decided to call on the powers of the Green Fairy to help remind staff and volunteers about saving energy. The little virtual helper ‘visits’ desks anonymously and leaves green tips and advice. She even says “thank you” when her advice has been followed.

NCVS won an award for their green fairy innovation and spent the £500 on improving an outdoor space belonging to the building. The space is now filled with plants, herbs and vegetables and is used by staff as a meeting place, eating area and place to relax.

The Green Group’s latest addition is ‘Dr Green’ who takes suggestions and answers questions about eco issues. A couple of ideas put to Dr Green have helped save heating bills (and of course energy) and implement further recycling in the central office.

NCVS have a dedicated noticeboard for green and ethical updates. They sell fairtrade drinks and organic snacks in the building vending machine and every six months have a ‘chuck away day’ where offices clear out and recycle old stationery and equipment. On top of that all NVAC tennants have been given a CD full of tips, information and a model environmental policy to help them make their offices a brighter shade of green.

Some great ideas to consider for our own offices…

I’ve been expecting a green backlash for a long time. To be honest I thought it would happen sooner and be much more aggressive. Of course there are still the ‘climate sceptics’ and we could all think of individuals who simply refuse to believe that doing their bit can help change the world but I consider encouraging them to think differently as a work in progress.

What I didn’t expect was a backlash from people who are supportive of environmental issues!

This is a very specific backlash I speak of; one towards green and ethical business. Although, as I type ‘green’ and ‘ethical’ I get a sinking feeling. It seems these and others like them have become dirty words.

Here are a few real examples of conversations I’ve had and discussions I’ve read.

“100% Green Hosting? There’s no way it can be 100% green!”

“Look out for greenwash – terms like eco-friendly”

“I don’t play up the whole green and ethical side of things because I don’t like what the big businesses are doing”

Am I behind on what is the appropriate terminology? Or am I observing a green sickness which has been caught by even the most dedicated eco enthusiasts?

It is true that many big businesses seem to be taking advantage of customers’ demand for more responsible products and services – This keen reaction to the market is probably one of the reasons that they are big business. It is also true that not all of these businesses are as genuinely committed to being environmentally friendly as they’d have us believe.

But why let the proliferation of these terms affect your decisions as a consumer?

I use these terms all the time but not without the knowledge that they are completely subjective. I use them to briefly label the multitude of things we do to try and run our business in a responsible, caring and sustainable way. One person’s view of green or ethical is likely to be very different from then next person’s view but just because some may be using these terms to name some questionable practices doesn’t mean we all are.

This is where we need to be smarter consumers, don’t assume green is good but don’t assume it’s dirty either. Ask yourself, does the business describe their so called green and ethical practices? If they do then you can make an informed decision about whether their version of green and ethical is good enough for you.

Short of inventing new words, what more can us green and ethical business owners do?

Take a look at my series of articles “How can a web design company be green and ethical” to see how we sum Make Hay up with these two words.

For a little while now I’ve been having lots of fun writing Make Hay newsletters for our clients, providing news about what we’ve been up to and links and resources to help ethical business owners and we thought it was about time we shared it with everyone.

On ‘Make Hay, The Blog‘ we’ll be talking about useful websites, news from the world of ethical business and web design, special offers and anything else we’re inspired by.

Check us out on www.makehay.co.uk/blog

The makers at Mattel have introduced a new line of clothing and accessories for our favorite “it” girl in what they call eco-friendly fashions. 

According to  Mattel: “Barbie is always a reflection of current cultural trends and issues, and girls are increasingly aware of making a green statement,” said Richard Dickson, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Media and Entertainment, Worldwide, Mattel Brands. “Barbie BCause is for eco-conscious girls who believe that being environmentally-friendly is the right thing to do, and we are thrilled to give extra meaning and extra style to what was once just extra Barbie doll fabric.”  (They are taking the scrap pieces of fabric from the other collections and making clothes for this new collection.)

 Hmmmm…okay Mattel, BUT, what about the entire doll that’s made from molded plastic, and all the plastic that is used to package it, not to mention all its other billion pvc accessories and outfits that aren’t of the new eco-friendly (i’m starting to hate this word) line.  Truly, eco-conscious girls (and parents) would not be buying Barbie to begin with me thinks !

I always try to applaud companies for at least taking small steps toward sustainability (except Walmart), but Barbie is and always will be a symbol of fun decadence, heck I say just leave her that way!  Barbie has always been marketed as the smart, intelligent girl about town, well so are we, and we see through your obvious ploy to tap into the hot green market right now.

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

Carrotmob’s ethos really appeals to me. It’s all about reaching those with the real power – businesses – to make actual, tangible changes. Plus this isn’t done through demonising business, negative pressure or boycott but actively encourages businesses to compete to become more environmentally friendly.Here at Green Girls Global we’re very lucky to be able to get an exclusive scoop on the genius behind Carrotmob, Brent Schulkin, and find out what inspires him, how Carrotmob works and where it’s going next….

Q1 Welcome Brent. The idea behind Carrotmob and your ‘We Make it Rain’ campaign is one of the most inspiring I’ve seen in ages because it really speaks to businesses in a language they understand – profit and competition. Where did you get the initial idea?

Why thank you! I started off thinking about the consumer side of the transaction. Several years ago, I read a book called Smart Mobs, by Howard Rheingold. It got me thinking about the power that can be created just by connecting groups of people into networks, and spurring those networks into action. Later I realized just how promising a network of consumers could be as a carrot to change corporate behavior. The idea of creating positive incentives for business to do good is not entirely new, but there are several recent developments that make now a good time for this approach to flourish: First, technology now allows us to easily connect and coordinate our activities like never before. Secondly, in the last couple years, environmentalism has gone mainstream. And third, we have a reputation economy, and companies are putting huge resources into protecting or improving their reputation. Moreover, these days bloggers and normal citizens have much more power over the reputation of businesses. In an age when companies are desperately trying to be seen as authentic and good, they have plenty of motivation to try and please an authentic grassroots network of consumers like us, since they know we have great power when it comes to defining their reputation.

Q2 How did you publicise your first campaign and gain so much support?

I emailed my friends, and then it turned out that people thought that the idea was interesting enough that it was worth forwarding the email to their friends. I would also give a lot of credit to Facebook and other social networks.

Q3 In the Make it Rain video we see a regular grocery store taking part and gaining some real financial benefits. How do you see the same principle translating to big businesses?

There’s something very attractive about having a community event, and focusing on local businesses. I want to keep doing that, and cultivate little Carrotmob franchises all around the world. However, in order to have a greater environmental impact, I’d like to see our main focus turn to big well-known brands. Once our network is big enough, we should be able to go to competing consumer products companies (who make things that your average consumer would want to buy) and have them compete to see how much good they are willing to do, relative to their competitors. It will be challenging to develop a system for comparing the proposed actions of companies that may be doing business in very different circumstances, but we’ll figure out how to do it, and then companies will do what they do best: compete for profits. I think we can use that competition to get them to commit to making significant improvements. And the nice thing about dealing with the heavy hitters is that even if they are only willing to do something relatively small, the impact would still be enormous compared to what a little grocer can do.

Q4 Does it matter what a businesses’ incentive is to improve its environmental practices?

The short answer is no, but I must make a few distinctions. There are privately held companies and publicly held companies. When some rich family owns a company, they can do anything they want with it. They can be greedy and pollute, or they can be environmentally responsible and make sustainable choices. They may be susceptible to arguments about morals, right and wrong, etc. But when you are dealing with publicly-held companies, you’re dealing with a cold machine that knows nothing of right and wrong. When you’ve got a gazillion stockholders and financial institutions calling the shots, profit is the only thing that matters. It is actually illegal for publicly-held companies in the US to do good unless that good is also profitable. That goes back to the Dodge brothers suing Henry Ford for trying to give some cash to his workers rather than his investors. But I digress. The point is that when you’re talking about these huge companies, there’s no point in asking what the business incentive is, because there is only ever one incentive: money. It’s an ironic situation, because lots of these companies are filled with people who have very strong morals, but even a company with Mother Teresa as a CEO can’t get around this situation. Imagine that Mother Teresa decides to take the profits of her oil company and spend billions of dollars to clean up old oil spills, give college scholarships to the children of all their workers, end world hunger and cure AIDS. The next fiscal quarter rolls around and shareholders find that they didn’t get to line their pockets as much as they expected. They have the power to fire Mother Teresa. They also have the power to sue. Mother Teresa isn’t calling the shots here, it’s the corporate entity itself that demands a focus on profit. Luckily, if a group like Carrotmob exists, we can translate good into profit. Mother Teresa COULD get away with it if she knew that in exchange for ending world hunger, Carrotmob would send more customers her way, her company’s reputation would soar, the other oil companies would struggle, and overall her company’s profits would go up. So we don’t have to worry about their motivations if we can find and embrace these mutually beneficial situations.

Q5 If someone wanted to start a Carrotmob style campaign in their home town how would they go about it? Do you have starter packs or campaign guides?

I would love to see some local campaigns get going. For now people can go to our list of cities and leave their contact info so that others can connect with them. Once we get on our feet a little more we will try to get some great resources and tools that people can use to coordinate their own campaigns. We want to have a central Carrotmob entity that deals with larger companies, and then a distributed grassroots network that uses our site to get things going in their own communities. We can do global AND local at the same time!

Q6 What other ways would you say consumers can work with businesses rather than against them to bring about change?

There is no other option. EVERYONE MUST JOIN CARROTMOB IMMEDIATELY. Ha ha. But seriously. There are a lot of options for socially responsible investing. Shareholder activism is great if you own shares of something. And people working inside companies can do a whole lot of innovation from within. Of course there are a lot of sticks out there as well. I’m advocating the carrot approach, but I don’t want us to drop our sticks and exclusively switch to carrots. It takes a team effort.

Q7 Can others join the Carrotmob movement and is there a place to share ideas?

Everyone is encouraged to join Carrotmob by visiting our site and joining the mailing list. You can also link up with us on:
Facebook
Myspace
Twitter
and Digg
You can share ideas by leaving comments all around the site or on the Facebook discussion board. The next version of the site should have a better forum for sharing.

Q8 What’s next for Carrotmob?

Ha ha, I’m working on it! At this point I still have another job part-time to pay rent, so it’d be nice to get some sort of funding so I can work full-time on this, but for now I’m thinking we will do another local campaign in another retail environment, on a larger scale. Help us spread the word and soon we will be the most powerful mob in all the land!

Thank you Brent. GGG wishes you lots of success with Carrotmob and do keep us in touch with your news.

Well you heard him, go spread the word about Carrotmob!!

www.carrotmob.org